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Spike Lee

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Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson Lee (born March 20, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia), better known as Spike Lee, is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor noted for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks has produced over 35 films since 1983.

Biography

Lee was born in Atlanta to Bill Lee, a jazz musician and Mary, a school teacher. Lee moved with his family to Brooklyn when he was a small child. The Fort Greene neighborhood is home of Lee's production company, "40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks" and other Lee-owned or related businesses. As a child, his mother nicknamed him "Spike." In Brooklyn, he attended John Dewey High School. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University, and graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communication from Morehouse College. He then enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated in 1982 with a Master of Fine Arts in English.

Lee's thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films Festival. The film went on to win a Student Academy Award. In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It. With a budget of $160,000, the film was shot in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office.[1]

She's Gotta Have It would also lead Lee down a second career avenue. After marketing executives from Nike saw and liked the movie,[2] Lee was offered a job directing commercials for Nike. What they had in mind specifically was pairing Lee's character from She's Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving Mars Blackmon, with Jordan himself as their marketing campaign for the Air Jordan line. Later, Lee would be a central figure in the controversy surrounding the inner-city rash of violence involving Air Jordans.[3] Lee countered that instead of blaming manufacturers of apparel, "deal with the conditions that make a kid put so much importance on a pair of sneakers, a jacket and gold". Lee, through the marketing wing of his production company, has also directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's.

Lee's films are portraits of people and places. Lee's movies have examined race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and political issues. Many of his films include a distinctive use of music. Lee's father is a jazz bassist and is responsible for the music in some of his son's films, including Mo' Better Blues starring Denzel Washington.

Lee's film Do the Right Thing was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. His documentary 4 Little Girls was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award in 1997.

On May 2, 2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival will honor Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award.

Controversy

Lee has never shied away from controversial statements and actions involving American race relations. In 1992, Lee encouraged young black students to skip school and flock to theatres to see his movie Malcolm X. Ten years later, after headline-grabbing remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott regarding Senator Strom Thurmond's failed Presidential bid, Lee charged that Lott was a "card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan" on ABC's Good Morning America.[4]

Lee was the executive producer of the 1995 film New Jersey Drive, which depicted young African-American auto thieves in northern New Jersey. At the time, the city of Newark had the highest automobile theft rate in the country, and Newark mayor Sharpe James refused to allow filming of New Jersey Drive within the city limits. Years later in the hotly-contested 2002 Newark mayoral campaign, Lee endorsed James' opponent, Cory Booker.

In May of 1999 at the Cannes Film Festival screening of Summer of Sam, Lee was asked by a reporter about the post-Columbine attacks on Hollywood. Lee stated that he didn't think that movies and TV were the problem. When asked what the problem was, he talked about America's continuing problems with guns and mentioned groups like the National Rifle Association. "So then they asked me, 'What about Charlton Heston' and I said, 'Shoot him!' But I immediately laughed and said, 'It's a joke,'" Lee recounted. "It was an ironic joke about how violence begets violence." Spike, having been misquoted before by the mainstream media, then went on to joke with the assembled reporters how he didn't want to wake up the next morning with headlines about how he wants to shoot Charlton Heston. Ironically, that's exactly what happened. The New York Post, owned by conservative-advocate Rupert Murdoch, printed a story that left out the surrounding context and matter-of-factly suggested that Spike Lee actually wanted Heston to be executed. The story made it all the way to the halls of Congress as Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey issued a statement condemning Lee as having "nothing to offer the debate on school violence except more violence and more hate." Though Lee made many media appearances and spoke with a number of newspapers correcting the account of what happened, the misquote remains more well-known then the actual quote.[5]

In 2003, Lee filed suit against the Spike TV television network claiming that they were capitalizing on his fame by using his name for their network. The injunction order filed by Spike Lee was eventually lifted.

More recently, Lee commented on the federal government's response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Responding to a CNN anchor's question as to whether the government intentionally ignored the plight of black Americans during the disaster, Lee replied, "It's not too far-fetched. I don't put anything past the United States government. I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans." On Real Time with Bill Maher Spike cited the government's past atrocities including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Spike Lee is well known for his devotion to the New York Knicks professional basketball team. Much of the blame for the Knicks' loss (93-86 to the Indiana Pacers) in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, in which "Knick-killer" Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the 4th quarter, was given to Lee. Lee was apparently taunting Miller throughout the 4th quarter and Miller responded by making shot after shot. Miller also gave the choke sign to Lee. The headline of the New York Daily News the next day sarcastically said, "Thanks A Lot Spike."[6]

Spike Lee had a controversy with Quentin Tarantino about the use of the word "nigger" in Tarantino's movies.

His movie School Daze included a reference to two groups of people, the "Jigaboos" and the "Wannabes". This reference was used on Don Imus' radio show on April 4, 2007, in reference to the Rutgers versus Tennessee NCAA ladies basketball teams. This reference led to the firing of Imus on April 12, 2007.

Trademarks

Trivia

  • A select group of actors have appeared in numerous Spike Lee productions, including:
    • Danny Aiello (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Clockers, She Hate Me)
    • Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Bamboozled)
    • Ossie Davis [School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X (narrating the actual eulogy he delivered at Malcolm X's funeral), Get on the Bus, 4 Little Girls, She Hate Me]
    • Giancarlo Esposito (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X)
    • Michael Imperioli [Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers, Girl 6, Summer of Sam (which he co-wrote with Lee and Victor Colicchio)]
    • Samuel L. Jackson (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever)
    • Joie Lee (She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Crooklyn, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, Summer of Sam, She Hate Me)
    • Lonette McKee (Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, He Got Game, She Hate Me)
    • Bill Nunn (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, He Got Game)
    • Roger Guenveur Smith (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, A Huey P. Newton Story)
    • John Turturro (Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Clockers, Girl 6, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, She Hate Me)
    • Denzel Washington (Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Inside Man)
    • Isaiah Washington (Crooklyn, Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus)
    • Steve White (Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, Clockers, Get on the Bus)
  • The borough of Brooklyn is the setting for many of Lee's theatrical releases.
  • Spike is an avid Arsenal F.C. fan, he also volunteer as an assistant coach for children soccer team called Arsenal down at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan where his son, Jackson is one of the players.
  • Was originally engaged to direct the film version of the musical Rent, but abandoned the project. The film would later go on to be directed by Chris Columbus.
  • Collaborated with Brand Jordan to release a shoe celebrating his film company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, 20th anniversary and his contribution to the Air Jordan's success called "Air Jordan Spiz'ike". This shoe combined the designs of the Air Jordan III, IV, V, VI, and XX. All of which he directed the commercials for.
  • In 2007, a limited edition pair of the Air Jordan III will be released in a special colorway to resemble the Do The Right Thing movie poster.
  • Clothing designer Mark Ecko released a collection inspired by Spike's films and 40 Acres and a Mule under Ecko's Cut&Sew.
  • Variety reported that Lee has signed on to direct a James Brown biopic sometime in 2008.
  • One of the more prolific directors having averaged a little over a film a year since She's Gotta Have It.


References

  1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091939/business
  2. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n29_v221/ai_19625060
  3. ^ http://chucksconnection.com/articles/ConverseArt08.html
  4. ^ http://www.abc22.com/news/index.php?story=2150
  5. ^ http://www.salon.com/ent/log/1999/05/28/spike/index.html
  6. ^ [1]

Selected filmography (as director)

Feature films

Television

  • Freak (1998) (telefilm)
  • Pavarotti and Friends 99 for Guatemala and Kosovo (1999)
  • Pavarotti and Friends for the Children of Liberia (1998)
  • A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
  • The Concert for New York City (2001) (segment “Come Rain or Come Shine”)
  • Jim Brown: All American (2002)
  • Sucker Free City (2004)
  • Miracle's Boys (2005)
  • When the Levees Broke (2006)
  • Shark (pilot, 2006)
  • Chapelle's Show (The Lost Episodes) (2006)

Music videos

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